Covid restrictions remain: Ministry confirms Covid has claimed 127 Hawke’s Bay lives

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says we're heading to a point where Covid-19 is becoming normal. Photo / Fusion Medical Animation on Unsplash

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed that Covid-19 settings will remain the same for the next two months - a decision he said was a “difficult balancing act”.

He said the current isolation period not only relieved the health system, but also meant there were no labour market issues. One of the biggest issues in the education sector last year was teachers being off sick.

International experiences were considered, he said, and the country was heading towards a situation where Covid-19 was normal.

“We are heading towards a point where Covid-19 is becoming normal. Pretty much all of the other restrictions are gone now. We are moving to that era where Covid-19 is just one of those things the Ministry of Health manages.”

For Hawke’s Bay, since the start of the pandemic, a total of 77,432 Covid cases have been reported, Ministry of Health data up to April 11 shows.

The data showed Hawke’s Bay had 294 new cases over the week to Monday, still well down on the peaks of about 800 new cases per day in the region early in 2022.

Figures also confirmed 127 people have died with Covid as an underlying or contributory cause of death in Hawke’s Bay as of April 11.

Wastewater testing carried out by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) shows that Covid levels remain “low and steady” across the country.

Wastewater testing results in Hawke’s Bay have shown throughout the past year to have been roughly matched with the number of positive RAT tests.

The concentration of Covid in Hawke’s Bay wastewater has decreased by about 75 per cent in that time, from 14.81 million genome copies per person per day in April last year to 3.73 million genome copies per person per day as of April 3 this year.

A report from ESR said that while many sites had recommenced their regular sampling following weather-related impacts in late January and February 2023 from the Auckland flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle, sampling from Napier was still not possible.

The Napier autosampler normally covers 55,000 people in Hawke’s Bay.

Researchers at Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa found that ending the mandatory seven-day isolation period may cause a bump in infections in the first two months, with a 13 to 25 per cent increase in the total number of Covid hospital admissions and deaths in the subsequent six months.

After four to six months, infections settled to a level that was only slightly higher than if mandatory isolation was maintained, but the additional infections were more likely to be in the vulnerable older population according to the modelling.

“Case isolation reduces community transmission, and removing the case isolation requirements is expected to cause an increase in community transmission,” Dr Emily Harvey, programme co-lead for Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa, said.

“However, because the policy changes under consideration and the behaviour change in response to any policy changes are not known, the magnitude of this increase is highly uncertain.”